Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan Website Privacy Policy

Effective as of January 18, 2023

This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan and its related organizations and affiliates (“BBBS”, “we”, “us” or “our”), collects, uses and shares personal information collected through this website. We value your privacy, and we will not share your personal information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy without your consent.

By using THIS website, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms of the Privacy Policy, please do not use THIS website OR PROVIDE US WITH YOUR INFORMATION.

What this Privacy Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to our collection, use and sharing of your personal information (a) when you visit our website at https://thinkbigtoday.org/ (the “Site”), (b) receive our communications or participate in our online or offline activities or events, (c) fill out an application on our website, (d) donate to us or purchase ticket(s) for our events; and (e) that we obtain from third parties such as resellers, database vendors, content publishers and suppliers.

This Privacy Policy applies only to information gathered on and through the Site and does not apply to any other information or websites not owned or operated by BBBS or information collected by BBBS by other means.

Personal Information We Collect

Information You Give Us.  Personal information you may provide through the Site or otherwise communicate to us includes:

• Contact information. We collect information about you when you provide contact information to us via email, mail, or through the Site, including as a result of creating an account, filling out an application through the Site, filling out the “Contact Us” submission, buying an event ticket, or making a payment/donation to us. This information may include your first and last name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and credit card information.
• Sensitive personal information. We collect information that may be considered sensitive, such as your county of citizenship, race, driver’s license number, and social security number for our volunteer application, which is collected through a third-party service provider.
• Feedback and correspondence. We may collect information about you when you request information, respond to surveys, or otherwise correspond with us.
• Other information. We may collect other information from you that is not specifically listed here. We may use such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Information We Get from Others.  We may obtain additional information about you from third party sources, such as service providers, vendors, social media sites, and advertising agencies to provide you with more relevant information about our services.

Information Automatically Collected.  Our servers and third party service providers may automatically record certain information about how you use the Site, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device and browser type, operating system, DNS, the pages or features of the Site that you browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the frequency with which you use the Site, the links that you click on or use, and other statistics.  We collect this information in server logs and by using cookies and similar tracking technologies. See our Cookie Policy, below, for more information.

Statistical Analyses. We use Google Analytics to help us gather statistical information about the visitors to our Site and how they use the Site on an anonymous, aggregate basis.  However, we will not associate this data with your personally identifiable data unless required to do so to cooperate with law enforcement activity or other governmental request or to comply with law.  We may use this information to gain a better understanding of the users of our Site, to improve our Site, and to improve our services.  Depending on the type of browser and device that you use, you may have the ability to control the type of information that Google Analytics use. To understand how Google Analytics collects and processes data, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.  We reserve the right to license or sell aggregate, de-identified information about the visitors to our Site, but this information will not contain your personal information or otherwise be individually identifiable.

Sensitive Personal Information.  We may collect some sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, race, and criminal background) through the Site as a result of filling out our volunteer application. It is optional for you to provide this information, but you may not qualify for certain programming by BBBS if you do not provide this information.

In collecting this sensitive personal information, BBBS respects individual privacy, protects against unauthorized access to or use of information, and complies fully with all laws and government regulations in the collection, use, storage, display, distribution and disposal of such information. Authorized uses of sensitive information within BBBS are limited to uses which are necessary to: (a) meet our legal and regulatory requirements; or (b) facilitate access to services, transactions, facilities and information.

How We Use Your Personal Information

We use your personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described to you in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection:

To Provide the Site and Communicate with You. We use your personal information:

• to provide, maintain and improve the Site;
• to better understand your needs and interests, and personalize your experience with the Site;
• to enroll you in our events, programs, and contests;
• to respond to your requests, questions, comments, and feedback, and obtain feedback from you about our events and programs;
• to fulfill Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements and carry out fund development best practices for donor stewardship; and
• to perform website analytics and database management services.

To Send You Marketing Communications. We may send you newsletters, promotions or other marketing communications, but you may opt out of receiving them as described in the Your Choices section below.

To Create and Maintain Your Account. In order to utilize all of the services provided through the Site, you may create an account using certain personal information, including your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. You have choices about the information included in your account profile. You do not have to provide additional information on your profile; however, additional profile information may help you get more from our services. In some circumstances, if you elect not to provide certain information, you may not be able to receive our services or participate in certain events (i.e., if you create an account to bid in a silent auction, but do not include a name and bid amount, you may not be eligible to participate in the bidding). It is your choice whether to include sensitive information on your profile and to make that sensitive information public. Please do not post or add personal data to your profile that you would not want to be publicly available.

To Advertise to You.  We may use your personal information to manage and serve ads in the Site or on third party sites and to tailor ads to your interests and browsing history. In addition to the cookies utilized by us on this Site, BBBS may allow trusted third parties to place advertisements for our services on sites and applications operated by others. These third parties may use cookies and web beacons to measure the effectiveness of our ads and to determine the display of content and advertising to you based on your interests both on our Site and other sites and applications that you may visit (see our Cookie Policy below).  To support this interest-based advertising solution, we and the companies we have contracted with may use anonymous information about your visits to our and other websites and applications. The information collected and used by this process is always anonymous and does not enable any third party to identify you individually.  You can learn more about interest-based advertising and opt out of such advertising from certain companies at aboutads.info.

For Compliance, Fraud Prevention and Safety.  We may use your personal information as we believe appropriate to: (a) investigate or prevent violation of the law or your agreements with us; (b) protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by prosecuting and defending legal claims); (c) protect, investigate and deter against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity; (d) comply with applicable laws, lawful requests and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities; and (e) where permitted by law in connection with a legal investigation. For example, we may share information with law enforcement to reduce the risk of fraud or if someone uses or attempts to use our site for illegal reasons.

With Your Consent.  In some cases we may ask for your consent to collect, use or share your personal information.

How We Share your Personal Information

We may use third parties to help us design and operate the Site, provide services to support the Site, process your information, and provide promotional and marketing activities on our behalf. For example, we may hire a company to run certain website applications, help us analyze our data, process your credit card information, process donations that you provide, run a background check, or send information on our behalf about services and events in which you may be interested.  Unless otherwise indicated at the time we collect your information, if we allow third parties to access the personal information we collect, we will have contractual provisions or other appropriate protections in place to ensure such access is for limited purposes and in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

We do not share your personal information with third parties without your consent, except in the following circumstances:

BBBS-Related and Affiliated Organizations.  We may share your personal information with BBBS’s affiliates and related organizations for use consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Service Providers and Business Partners. We may share your personal information with third party companies and individuals as needed for them to provide us with services that help us with our business activities and to promote our services to you as well as our business partners who offer a service to you jointly with us. For example, we may hire a company to design or host our website, help us analyze our data, process your donations and volunteer applications, or send information on our behalf about products and services in which you may be interested. A list of our current service providers and business partners is available upon request.

Security, Compliance, Fraud Prevention, Safety; Compliance with Law. We may disclose your personal information as we believe appropriate to government or law enforcement officials or private parties for the purposes described above under the following sections: For compliance, fraud prevention and safety and for compliance with law.

Business Transfers. We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our business or assets, including your personal information, in connection with a business deal (or potential business deal) such as a merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy.

Your Choices

Opt Out of Communications. You may opt out of email notifications by (i) following the opt-out prompt (i.e., an “unsubscribe” button) in the email, or (ii) by contacting us using the information provided in the “How to Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy. To opt out of other forms of marketing communications, please contact us using the information provided in the “How to Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy

Opt Out of Marketing Communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by changing the communication preferences in your account settings or by following the opt-out prompt in the email.  To opt out of other forms of marketing communications, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this Policy.

Consequences of Not Providing Personal Information. You are not required to provide all personal information identified in this Privacy Policy to use our Site or to interact with us offline, but certain functionality will not be available if you do not provide personal information. For example, if you do not provide personal information, we may not be able to respond to your request, perform a transaction with you, or provide you with marketing that we believe you would find valuable.

Cookie Policy

What are Cookies?  Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website.   Cookies set by the website are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website are called “third party cookies”.  Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality, such as advertising or website analytics, to be provided on or through the website. The parties that set these third party cookies can recognize your computer or device both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites and/or mobile apps.

What Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies does BBBS Use?  We use several different kinds of cookies on this Site, including strictly necessary cookies, which are cookies that are necessary for the Site to function and cannot be switched off in our systems; performance cookies, which allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our Site; and functional cookies, which enable the Site to provide enhanced functionality and personalization.  Cookies are not the only way to track visitors to a website. We may use similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Sites.  These technologies often depend on cookies to function properly, and so disabling cookies may impair their functioning.

If you sign up to receive our e-mails, we will also use cookies in conjunction with these emails. When your browser downloads any graphic content in the e-mail, we will also place a cookie on your computer that will tell us if you come to our website at a later date.

Third-Party Cookies.  In addition to our own cookies, we may collaborate with various third-party service providers who may use cookies to help us optimize our website and understand more about the visitors to our website.  For example, we use Google Analytics to provide us with demographic information about our visitors and to help us analyze how people use our website. To learn more about how Google uses cookies, please click the link above or visit its website to view their privacy policies.

How Can You Disable Cookies and Other Tracking Technology?  Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings.  Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings.  For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.com.

Some Internet browsers also may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Other Important Privacy Information

Third Party Sites and Services. The Site may contain links to other websites and services operated by third parties.  These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control third party websites, applications or services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding their collection, use and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read their privacy policies to learn more.

Security.  The security of your personal information is important to us.  We take a number of organizational, technical and physical measures that are designed to protect the personal information we collect.  However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information.

International Data Use.  We are located in the United States and have affiliates and service providers in other countries, and your personal information may be collected, used and stored in the United States or other locations outside of your home country.  Privacy laws in the locations where we handle your personal information may not be as protective as the privacy laws in your home country.

Verifying, Changing, and Deleting Your Information. If you have registered for an account through our Site, you can access, review and manage many changes yourself via your account, including updating your profile information and changing your communication preferences.  If the information you are seeking is not available within your account, you can contact us as detailed below and ask us to change, update or fix your information in certain cases, particularly if it is inaccurate. You can also request that we erase or delete all or some of your personal information or otherwise object to, limit, or restrict the use of such information (if we have no legal right or legitimate business interest in retaining such information).

Children.

The Site is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13, nor do we knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are under 13, you should not attempt to use the Site or send any information about yourself to us.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post them on the Site and indicate the effective date of the change.  If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by email or through the Site.

How to Contact Us

Big Brother Big Sisters of Southwest Michigan
3501 Covington Road
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
United States of America

Email: marketing@bbbsmi.org
Phone:  269-382-6800

This Privacy Policy was last updated December 16, 2022.